Here’s our snap report. More from Jeremy Whittle to follow later.
Tom Paternoster-Howe gets in touch: “At 16.31 you asked if other sports should do combativity prizes. County cricket kind of does, because teams get bonus points for scoring lots of runs or taking lots of wickets quickly in the first innings, which encourages a more attacking and combative game to develop. Additionally rugby union’s bonus points for scoring 4+ tries or for losing by less than 7 points encourages greater attacking in the closing stages of games that might otherwise be meandering towards a clear win for one team.
“I wonder if other sports with a tendency towards the processional and meandering could do something like this – some sort of bonus points for the most overtakes (excluding of one’s team-mate) in F1 might make the tedium it has become more exciting.”
Mark Cavendish speaks, and he’s in rather mischievous mood, a little evasive.
I was ok. You knew something was going to happen. You hit the brakes and skid and think someone will hit the back of you. I think everyone was ok. We’re safe and that’s the main thing, I don’t think anyone’s legs feel good. Maybe Pogacar. It was ok, it was a long day. It wasn’t easy enough that we could recover. I’ll keep going.
General classification
1. Richard Carapaz (ECU) EF Education - EasyPost 15:20:18
2. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates
3. Remco Evenepoel (BEL) Soudal - Quick-Step
4. Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) Team Visma - Lease a Bike
5. Romain Bardet (FRA) Team dsm-firmenich - +6 PostNL
6. Pello Bilbao (ESP) Bahrain Victorious +21
7. Guillaume Martin (FRA) Cofidis
8. Egan Bernal (COL) INEOS Grenadiers
9. Jai Hindley (AUS) Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
10. Aleksandr Vlasov () Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
Full result for Stage three
1. Biniam Girmay (ERI) Intermarché - Wanty 5:26:48
2. Fernando Gaviria (COL) Movistar Team
3. Arnaud De Lie (BEL) Lotto - Dstny
4. Mads Pedersen (DEN) Lidl - Trek
5. Dylan Groenewegen (NED) Team Jayco - AlUla
6. Phil Bauhaus (GER) Bahrain Victorious
7. Fabio Jakobsen (NED) Team dsm-firmenich - “PostNL
8. Davide Ballerini (ITA) Astana - Qazaqstan Team
9. Sam Bennett (IRL) Decathlon - AG2R - La Mondiale Team
10. Bryan Coquard (FRA) Cofidis
Richard Carapaz, the Ecuadorian, has moved into yellow. Pogacar won’t be too unhappy to lose the leader’s jersey – and the target on his back – for now.
How did that happen?
The Cavendish challenge never materialised, before Pedersen went early and Girmay slid up the right-hand side. There was some fistifcuffs and harsh words between De Lie and Groenewegen.
Girmay is the first black African to win a stage of Le Tour. He’s a previous winner of Gent-Wevelgem
First of all, thanks God for everything. Since I started cycling, I never dreamed to be part of the Tour de France, now I can’t believe it. My second yard in the Tour. In Africa we must be proud and part of the big races. Congrats to my whole team,. Now it’s our moment. I am super happy. This for all Africa, I am just super happy. In the last kilometre I lost the wheel of Gerben Thijssen and tried myself.
Stage three snap result
1 Biniam Girmay ERI (Intermarché - Wanty)
2 Fernando Gaviria COL (Movistar Team)
3 Arnaud De Lie BEL (Lotto - Dstny)
Updated
Cavendish, meanwhile, never got into the final sprint. We’ll have to wait for the reasons why. All that preparation came to naught. Thankfully, the crash – so far – hasn’t proved too serious – and the GC contenders came home in a bunch.
There’s going to be some countback after that crash and a chaotic finale, with an African winner of the stage. He’s a classy rider, having won a bunch sprint at the 2022 Giro.
Biniam Girmay takes the third stage!
Pedersen goes off, no sign of Cavendish, and it’s Biniam Girmay, the Eritrean, who goes well clear, wins by a street in sprinting terms. That was a mighty ride from the Team Intermarche man.
Updated
1 km to go: No sign of Cavendish into that final turn, maybe it’s not to be. Or is he there?
2 km to go: There’s a big crash, and there’s riders all over the show. The Team Israel team has taken the brunt. Astana and Cavendish are in touch, it seems.
3 km to go: The GC teams have dropped back, and it’s down to the sprinters as they go to 68 km/h. It’s going to be a blanket finish.
4km to go: It’s getting nervy, it’s getting physical. The road widens, and then closes on the final kilometre and its pair of bends.
Van der Poel crashes!
6km to go: So many chances. The handicapper’s done their job here. This looks a race to the finish. Bruno Armirail down, and now Matthieu van der Poel is down and kicking a barrier. That will hurt Jasper Philipsen’s chances, his lead-out man is gone.
Updated
8km to go: The road to Turin is straight, barring those roundabouts. All the sprinters are there, so Cavendish will have to beat the best around. And be lucky, too. A prang is never too far away. The pace is 54km/h, and you could throw a circus big top over the lot of them.
10km to go: The pack splitting into prepared divisions. Astana are asked to go ahead of UAE or Visma by Mark Renshaw on the race radio. The roundabouts are pinpointed as a problem.
12 km to go: They are swinging through the built-up streets now, the suburbs, and teams are trying to stay on the left of roundabout. Quickstep have lost a rider, who came off as he tried to right himself. Casper Pedersen it is, and that looks nasty. Those roundabouts are a danger. Pedersen is ok to continue, and will idle to the finish.
15km to go: Cavendish-watch: he’s sat at the back of the pack, biding his time. They are packed tightly across the road, and the speed drops to 51 km/h. Feels like a tortoise and hare scenario, though probably more cat and mouse.
17km to go: The phoney war is among us, all is calm, Grellier is back in the field. The speed is 62km/h. Are riders being used up? Mads Pedersen of the Trek team seems well-placed.
Updated
22km to go: Gells being taken on by the riders, and there’s a warning that a storm is still 50-50, and that one side will be greasy if that happens. Conditions seem fine for the moment.
25km to go: What does Eddy Merckx think of Mark Cavendish, his partner on 34 stage wins. From 2021: “I wouldn’t say Mark is the greatest sprinter of all time, but he is one of the greatest. There have been so many top sprinters who have also won many stages. But he’s a really nice guy and I wouldn’t have had a problem with it if he had beaten my record. I have a lot of appreciation for Cavendish.”
Merckx’s wins came via a combination of sprints, escapes, mountain finishes and time trials. He was the realest deal of all, perhaps aside from Bernard Hinault, on 28.
Updated
30km to go: Grellier is likely to get the combativity award – good for him. He’s actually back out at 15 seconds clear. Should other sports do such an award? The lead-out trains are getting to eat him up, and then get ready for the last 20km or so. Those will go quickly.
35km to go: All eyes on Astana and Mark Cavendish – Sir Mark Cavendish KBE to give him his full title. There’s been plenty of fiddling behind the scenes.
38km to go: Andrew Benton gets in touch: “Do you think the other teams might be less competitive today just to quietly help Cav towards the record ? That would mean the peloton is just a procession, a ‘cav’alcade even. (Let’s hope that feeble joke retires hurt before any sprinting action starts.)“ Andrew’s writing from the Philippines.
Poor Grellier is is looking behind him, after his good blow ahead of the bunch.
40km to go: The speed is up overall, and the peloton is within touching distance of Grellier, and the word is of wind in Turin. The storms are still a threat, too. So these are times of anxiety of getting ducks in a row, preparing while there being known unknowns ahead. The sky seems greyer than back in Coppi country.
50km to go: Grellier is doing his best for his team, as they climb over the last hill of the day, at Sommariva Perno, and he’s pulling the peloton along with him. Lots of noise on the streets; it’s all been rather stately so far.
55km to go: Grellier is up to 45 seconds clear. This is his first Tour since 2020 when he wore the polka dot jersey after the first day. The word is it’s going to be windy at the finish in Turin.
60 km to go: An attack? Fabien Grellier, a Frenchman has used a descent to have a dig. He’s opened a gap of 30 seconds, and that might put some speed into the peloton, with six or seven clicks to the next climb.
65km to go: Here’s the King of the Mountains standing, an embryonic table if you will.
1. Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) - 24 points
2. Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) - 11
3. Frank van den Broek (dsm-firmenich PostNL) - 9
4. Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) - 8
5. Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) - 3
6. Cristian Rodriguez (Arkea-B&B Hotels) - 3
7. Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) - 2
8. Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech) - 1
9. Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Victorious) - 1
10. Matteo Sobrero (Bora-Hansgrohe) - 1
Updated
74.5km to go: Matteo Sobrero of Team Bora takes the points from the bunch in the climb at Barbaresco, it’s a category four climb. Jonas Abrahamsen denied the single point on offer.
🏁 76 km
— Maillot à Pois E.Leclerc (@maillotapois) July 1, 2024
⛰ Les coureurs entament l’ascension de la côte de Barbaresco (cat. 4), c’est parti pour 1,5 km à 6,5% de moyenne. ⚪️🔴#TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/XHHnV4Ag9F
Just look at the terrain they are climbing through.
🍇🍇🍇🚴♂️🍇🍇🍇#TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/iP9Gjs6n3V
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 1, 2024
80km to go: Paul Griffin gets in touch: “So good to be reminded of Will Fotheringham’s magisterial Fausto book (although I can’t get the link to work). The poverty of his childhood, the racing years, but most of all the chapters about his trial for adultery with the woman in white are a wonderful read. (Lazy bias so-called journalism etc etc etc for not mentioning this). It’s easily one of the great books about bike racing, on the second tier of the podium behind Tim Krabbe’s The Racer. His best line: “I see non-racers by the side of the road. The emptiness of their lives shocks me.” Camus meets Cavendish.”
With a couple of hilly bits, and the threat of wind and storms the field has tightened up after the free jazz of the early bit of the day. It’s a long lead-in to Turin.
88km to go: Ah, this was the plan. Mark Cavendish is having his bike changed – both wheels – and then loaded with gels, Mark Renshaw to the fore, and now he’s being ridden back to the front by an Astana teammate. He’s also asking for the car to take up some aerodynamics by being in front of them, thus preserving energy. He’s fully loaded up for this one, so much prep going into this plan.
Updated
95km to go: Bill Preston gets in touch: “These long flats stages can sometimes trip up GC contenders. Especially with wind and rain in the mix. Even a small error, like going the long longer way around a roundabout, can ruin a rider’s hopes (this did for Pinot and FDJ a couple of years back, however it did free him up to have some thrilling heroic rides as he was no longer marked as a threat).
“Equally nervous must be Cavendish’s team. The responsibility of organising, and then executing the correct time and place to get a stomp on for him. It could be one of those days where everything goes fine and the GC riders get a quiet one, Cav has to wait, and we’ll do it all again in the week. However, the sprint is going to be beillo, either way.”
Updated
100km to go: The pace has idled yet more after the taking on of bidons. Astana’s Mark Renshaw seem to be deliberating over something. “Changing the front wheel,” he says. Code word? Who knows. Guess we’ll soon find out.
Gary Naylor gets in touch: “One of many delights of Grand Tours is the explicit manifestation of cooperative behavioural norms. As in life, riders come together to act in their best collective interest, providing a background against which team and individual competition takes place. Those norms are not written down, nobody is in charge of their enforcement but they are accepted. They exemplify the opposite of relationships characterised by the transactional, by the exploitation of decency, by the sneer at the naivety of the Little People. Your competitors are also your comrades.”
115km to go: Still no sign of a breakaway.
Updated
130 km to go: Sam Bennett is among those who fancies the sprint but drops back in the sprint and it’s Mads Pedersen, with a smooth ride who takes the mountain points. Few big contenders didn’t seem to fancy that.
Here;‘s the overal standings.
1. Jonas Abrahamsen - 76
2. Kevin Vauquelin - 60
3. Mads Pedersen - 41
10. Wout van Aert - 22
Updated
140km to go: Still not much movement. The sprint comes up soon enough. Abrahamsen’s green jersey tenure will soon be at its end.
160km to go: A reminder of today’s easy stage. Jen Voight, on the Eurosport bike, says it’s the easiest beginning of any stage he can remember for the last 20 years. The intermediate sprint will come 94km or so into the stage. They’re currently on a road named after Coppi, for a climb of 1.1km, and all the teams are in formation. They’re in Tortona, final resting place of Coppi. Jonas Abrahamsen goes over the top to claim the mountain points; he leads that category as well as the green jersey points.
🚲 Stage 3 / Étape 3 🚲
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 1, 2024
🚩 Plaisance
🏁 @twitorino
📏 230,8 km
⏰ 11:15 CEST > 17:12 CEST
⛰ 3x4️⃣
💚 km 94,3#TDF2024 | @letour_italia pic.twitter.com/7Wy90KCapm
165km to go: The word is the peloton is slower than expected, no breakaways. The fear now is that the rain comes and the teams are requesting the fans are not allowed too close to what are likely to be greasy roads.
Updated
190km to go: Not much happening, all together at the front, plenty of mugging for the camera by the riders, who are smashing along nicely. Up ahead, beckons the home town of Fausto Coppi, Italy’s finest ever cyclist. Learn about him here. Quite the life. He won Le Tour in 1949 and 1952.
200km to go: The word is that storms may crash the party at 2pm. The Italian region has been swamped by them of late. The peloton at the moment is the very opposite of stormy. No breakaway.
205 km to go: “I’m a bit tired,” says Mark Cavendish, chatting to Discovery. His Astana team radio, Mark Renshaw, his former leadout man, is telling the team that nobody seems to fancy breaking away. “It’s a 700m run to the line,” says Cav. “It’s good to get the leadout done by then.” A lot of faith is being placed in Michael Mørkøv, his leadout, similarly 39 years old, and a leadout man of real distinction.
220km to go: Thus far, it’s been an intriging tactical battle. No breakawaus on the flat.
The départ
230km to go: Christian Prudhomme delays the start by waving his arms around, as a few riders have been slow in getting ready, and off we go from Piacenza. Nobody seems willing to take on an early break.
Jeremy Whittle’s report from Sunday, a great race into Bologna.
We’re under 5km from the départ réel, as they idle through the streets of Piacenza. Turin, an underrated city, awaits.
Preamble
Could this be the one for Cav? This is the one – the first one, at least - that’s been been highlighted as the stage where he can surpass Eddy Merckx and go to 35 wins on Le Tour. Hopefully, the great man is not too gassed after two hard days in the saddle. The race is being led by Tadej Pogacar, whose team are likely to lock down the peloton, and that means there will be an opportunity for the sprinters. Enter Mark Cavendish, entering history?
Here’s William Fotheringham’s stage preview:
After Gino Bartali on Saturday, Pantani on Sunday, if it’s Monday it must be a stage that tips its hat to Fausto Coppi, passing through Tortona, home town of the campionissimo. As far as the action goes, today things should settle down – briefly – with a relatively innocuous, if lengthy, sprint stage, offering a first chance to assess the form of the fastmen, and a first opportunity for Mark Cavendish to tilt for that record-breaking stage win.
